Continuous library catalog card

ABSTRACT

A continuous web for library catalogue cards having a plurality of slit lines longitudinally spaced 7.5 centimeters apart, each slit line extending 12.5 centimeters transversely between edge carrier portions of the form such that upon removal of the carrier portions outwardly of the slit lines a plurality of standard 7.5 centimeters X 12.5 centimeters catalogue cards are provided. Longitudinally extending lines of uniquely shaped feed holes or perforations are provided in the carrier portions of the form which permit printing of the cards by means of existing high speed printers of United States manufacture despite the cards being dimensioned in the metric system and the feed of the printers being dimensioned in the English system.

United States Patent [1 Porter [11] 3,744,820 [451 July 10,1973

[ CONTINUOUS LIBRARY CATALOG CARD [76] Inventor: Virgil V. Porter, 3433 Grasswood Drive, Richmond, Calif. 94708 [22] Filed: Dec. 2, 1970 [21] Appl. No.: 94,445

[52] U.S. Cl. 281/5, 197/133 P, 226/75 [51] Int. Cl B42d 19/00 [58] Field of Search 281/5; 282/12 R, 282/12 A, 15 B, 16 B, 16 C, 18 A, 20 B, 21 C, 21 D; 197/133 P; 226/74, 75, 76

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,304,102 2/1967 Huffman r 281/5 2,309,656 2/1943 Metzner... 282/21 R 2,010,775 8/1935 Edwards 281/5 UX FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 464,936 5/1950 Canada 281/5 Primary Examiner-Jerome Schnall AttorneyHarris Zimmerman [5 7 ABSTRACT A continuous web for library catalogue cards having a plurality of slit lines longitudinally spaced 7.5 centimeters apart, each slit line extending 12.5 centimeters transversely between edge carrier portions of the form such that upon removal of the carrier portions outwardly of the slit lines a plurality of standard 7.5 centimeters X 12.5 centimeters catalogue cards are provided. Longitudinally extending lines of uniquely shaped feed holes or perforations are provided in the carrier portions of the form which permit printing of the cards by means of existing high speed printers of United States manufacture despite the cards being dimensioned in the metric system and the feed of the printers being dimensioned in the English system.

7 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures PATENTEU JUI 1 0 75 wOOQN UOWO TOQUOOMUO/OOOOWOOOOJ WOOOO' INVENTOR, VIRGIL V. PORTER ATTORNEY CONTINUOUS LIBRARY CATALOG CARD BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION It has been estimated that the annual usage of library catalogue cards is of the order of 4,000,000,000. Because of this substantial volume of cards, there has been increasing pressure towards producing the cards at high speed by computer printing. However, the international standard for library catalogue cards has been established in the metric system of dimensions as 7.5 centimeters x 12.5 centimeters. Such metric dimensions of the card pose problems in their computer printing on high speed printers of United States manufacture which are typically arranged to feed or space by dimensions in the English system. In other words, the card dimensions are not readily compatible to high speed printing in the United States.

Heretofore the unique size of the catalogue cards has resulted in a variety of ways to achieve the appropriate outsize through the use of forms manufactured in inches. In accordance with one method, a form has been provided in a 3% inch or 3 inch card depth to facilitate printing on substantially any United States high speed printer in a conventional manner. Subsequent to printing, the form is die cut in an area between the cards to force the 7.5 centimeter size. In other words, if the card depth is 3 inches, the die cut is such as to remove 0.12 centimeters of material and thereby leave a 7.5 centimeter dimension.

Another method is to use a 3% inch depth which may be burst into single cards subsequent to printing. Thereafter the cards are trimmed on a guillotine cutter to the correct size.

Both of the foregoing approaches to the production of catalogue cards are expensive in manufacture and use.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a continuous library catalogue card web or form having slit lines directly defining a 7.5 centimeter card depth, which is yet arranged to permit running of the form on any high speed printer of United States manufacture to provide printed standard 7.5 centimeters x 12.5 centimeters cards in a direct manner not involving expensive precision cutting or trimming techniques to arrive at the card dimension.

In the accomplishment of the foregoing and other advantages and features, a continuous form in accordance with the present invention is generally provided with a plurality of slit lines longitudinally spaced 7.5 centimeters apart, each line transversely extending 12.5 centimeters between longitudinally extending edge carrier portions of the form. Within the carrier portions there are provided longitudinally extending lines of elongate feed holes or perforations on a 1.25 centimeters center to center which permit continuous feeding of the forms by all high speed printers of United States manufacture, the standard feed drives of which have k inch centers. Such perforations are usually referred to in the business forms field as feed holes," line holes or line hole punching. In one embodiment, the form is provided with longitudinally extending perforate separation lines intersecting the opposite ends of the slit lines to facilitate the ready removal of the carrier portions of the form, whereby the individual printed 7.5 centimeters x 12.5 centimeters cards remain. In another embodiment, the perforate separation lines are omitted and a detacher or burster in line with the printer slits off the carrier portions of the form.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a fragmentary plan view of a continuous library catalogue web or form in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the form in accordion folded stacked condition preparatory to introduction to a high speed printer.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Referring now to FIG. 1 in detail, there is shown a continuous library catalogue web or form 11 of heavy paper, or equivalent material, having a plurality of slit lines 12 extending transversely or widthwise of the form, such lines being longitudinally spaced apart by 7.5 centimeters. The slit lines are 12.5 centimeters in length and are disposed centrally of the transverse dimension of the form with their opposite ends terminating at longitudinally extending edge carrier portions 13 and 14. Each carrier portion preferably has a width of 2.5 centimeters such that the overall width of the form is 17.5 centimeters. In addition holes 16 are provided forwardly adjacent the midpoints of the slit lines. Such holes are preferably of 5/16 inch diameter. Each area between adjacent slit lines and between the carrier portions defines a standard 7.5 centimeters x 12.5 centimeters library catalogue card 17 having a hole 16 to facilitate retention in a card file, or the like, by means of a retaining rod, etc.

By virtue of the metric dimensions of the cards 17, computer programming printing of the cards by means of high speed printers of United States manufacture has posed problems by virtue of such printers being arranged to feed or space in dimensions in the English system rather than the metric system. More particularly, standard fonn feeding tractors of United States high speed printers are on k inch centers using h inch pins. Such tractors are generally employed to engage feed perforations of a continuous form which are correspondingly spaced apart center to center by English system dimensions such as 1% inch. The English system dimensional spacing of the feed perforations cannot be arranged for symmetrical disposition with respect to the metric system dimensions of the card such that unsymmetrical printing thereof would normally result if high speed printers of United States manufacture are employed.

In accordance with the particularly salient aspects of the present invention the foregoing problems of high speed printing of the form 11 by printers of United States manufacture are overcome despite the card defining slit lines 12 being spaced apart in dimensions in the metric system. In this regard, the carrier portions 13 and 14 of form 11 are provided with longitudinal lines of feed perforations 18 of unique spacing and shape. The perforations have a center to center longitudinal spacing of 1.25 centimeters and are of elongate rectangular configuration, preferably five-sixteenths inch long by five thirty-seconds inch wide with rounded ends. The longitudinal center lines of the perforations are preferably spaced transversely inward from the side edges of the form by V4 inch. The perforations are symmetrically disposed with respect to the sides of the cards 17, there being six perforations between adjacent slit lines 12 with the end ones of the perforations equally spaced from the respective slit lines.

It will be thus appreciated that although the center to center spacing between the perforations 18 is slightly less than one-half inch, the elongate configuration of the perforations enables same to be engaged by the inch pins on 9% inch centers of standard feed tractors of any United States manufactured high speed printer.

Such a printer runs and spaces the form 11 as if it were 3 inches in depth rather than the 7.5 centimeter depth between slit lines. This results in a 24 line capacity for each card 17.

To facilitate removal of the carrier portions 13 and 14, and thus separation of the cards 17 subsequent to printing, the form may be provided with longitudinally extending perforate separation lines 19 and 21 intersecting the opposite ends of slit lines 12 to thereby define boundaries between the carrier portions and the cards. In addition, perforate separation lines 22 and 23 may be provided to extend transversely from the opposite ends of each slit line 12 to the side edges of the form. Thus, the carrier portions may be readily removed at the separation lines to thereby free the individual printed cards 17. The transverse separation lines 22 and 23, moreover, facilitate the ready accordion folding of the form into the stacked configuration shown in FIG. 2 which is particularly well suited to loading into some high speed printers.

As an alternative to the means hereinbefore described to facilitate separation of the cards 17, the separation lines may be omitted and the form 11 run over a detacher, burster, slitter or the line in line with the printer to slit off the carrier portions 13 and 14.

It should be understood that while this invention has been described in connection with one specific continuous product, i.e., library catalogue cards, the inventive concept may be likewise applied to other continuous forms wherein the forms have metric dimensions, but are adpated to be run on printers made on the English dimension system. In such cases, the transversely extending separation lines would usually comprise perforations rather than the slit lines 12, such perforations being aligned with the perforate lines 22,23 on the longitudinally extending carrier portions.

I claim:

1. A continuous library catalog card web of paper having a plurality of slit lines longitudinally spaced 7.5 centimeters apart, said lines being disposed centrally of said web and extending transversely l2.5 centimeters between longitudinally extending edge carrier portions of the web, said carrier portions being removable to provide catalog cards of standard 7.5 centimeters by 12.5 centimeters with clean uninterrupted edges, said carrier portions having longitudinally extending lines of elongate feed perforations having center-to-center spacing of 1.25 centimeters, said perforations being symmetrically disposed with respect to said slit lines and each being generally defined by a rectangle. fivesixteenths inch long and five thirty-seconds inch wide with rounded longitudinally opposed ends, said perforations constituting means for engaging the feed pins with one-half inch spacing of high speed printers for continuously printing metric library catalog cards on English system high-speed printers.

2. The form according to claim 1, further defined by longitudinally extending perforate separation lines intersecting the opposite ends of said slit lines to enable ready removal of said carrier portions.

3. The form according to claim 2, further defined by transverse perforate separation lines extending from and being aligned with the opposite ends of said slit lines to the side marginal edges of said form.

4. The form according to claim 3, further defined by said carrier portions having each a width of 2.5 centimeters.

5. The form according to claim 1, further defined by transverse perforate separation lines extending from and being aligned with the opposite ends of said slit lines to the side marginal edges of said form.

6. The form according to claim 5, further defined by said carrier portions having each a width of 2.5 centimeters.

7. The form according to claim I, further defined by said carrier portions having each a width of 2.5 centimeters. 

1. A continuous library catalog card web of paper having a plurality of slit lines longitudinally spaced 7.5 centimeters apart, said lines being disposed centrally of said web and extending transversely 12.5 centimeters between longitudinally extending edge carrier portions of the web, said carrier portions being removable to provide catalog cards of standard 7.5 centimeters by 12.5 centimeters with clean uninterrupted edges, said carrier portions having longitudinally extending lines of elongate feed perforations having center-to-center spacing of 1.25 centimeters, said perforations being symmetrically disposed with respect to said slit lines and each being generally defined by a rectangle five-sixteenths inch long and five thirty-seconds inch wide with rounded longitudinally opposed ends, said perforations constituting means for engaging the feed pins with one-half inch spacing of high speed printers for continuously printing metric library catalog cards on English system highspeed printers.
 2. The form according to claim 1, further defined by longitudinally extending perforate separation lines intersecting the opposite ends of said slit lines to enable ready removal of said carrier portions.
 3. The form according to claim 2, further defined by transverse perforate separation lines extending from and being aligned with the opposite ends of said slit lines to the side marginal edges of said form.
 4. The form according to claim 3, further defined by said carrier portions having each a Width of 2.5 centimeters.
 5. The form according to claim 1, further defined by transverse perforate separation lines extending from and being aligned with the opposite ends of said slit lines to the side marginal edges of said form.
 6. The form according to claim 5, further defined by said carrier portions having each a width of 2.5 centimeters.
 7. The form according to claim 1, further defined by said carrier portions having each a width of 2.5 centimeters. 